Nose: The obvious estery pomace quality in there, and strongly floral and then fruity. A field of irises and violets, with a patch of dried waxy and bitter red flowers. Musty grapes (ed: sigh... is this what we've come to in descriptions?) peach and apricots, all musty, too, obviously. Vanilla wafts up, almost like a boozy and sharply sugary cake frosting. Not sweet on the whole, which is a relief. Lightly honeyed as well.

Palate: A bit light on the whole, and very fun and easy. Honey, vanilla/dry+bitter oak, more floral and herbal with twigs, jasmine, and an echo of very sweet mint. Fruit is clearly there in the second layer, peach, apricot (hint), sweet lemon, and then golden grapes and raisins. Touch of mirabelle.

Finish: Continues to the same point where it was trending, and the retrolfaction just highlights the intense golden raisin quality -- like somebody took juicy raisins and mashed them up and let them ferment briefly before adding a few drops of floral honey. Not the most complicated, but very easy to enjoy and clearly well made. B+

I wasn't sure what to expect; I've had a few marc, and have enjoyed them, but I rather liked this one. And it's pretty affordable, too. Master of Malt is selling bottles for about 28 GBP, which is more than reasonable. I've been growing keener on pomace brandy. During my recent trip to France, I spent most of my time drinking pineau de charentes and marc. It was good stuff.